After Obama Bashes Arizona on Immigration, DNC Calls New Law "Short-sided" SEIU Says It "Institutionalizes Racism"

Within hours of Arizona Republican Gov. Janice Brewer's signing of a new immigration law empowering police to inspect proof of legal residency, the Democratic National Committee and one of the party's most powerful unions denounced the move.

In a statement, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine said the new law "legitimizes prejudice." Kaine called the law short-sided and criticized Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, Obama's general election opponent, for backing the legislation.

Read Kaine's full statement here:

“Today, President Obama highlighted the ongoing work of his Administration and Democrats in Congress to achieve comprehensive immigration reform that emphasizes compliance with our immigration laws and accountability while at the same time creating a pathway out of the shadows for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living and working in the United States.

“Unfortunately, while Democrats in Washington seek a responsible solution to the challenges that we all face with respect to America’s current immigration laws, Republicans have proposed a patchwork of extreme fixes that will not help the situation and will instead serve to undermine Americans’ liberties and civil rights while fostering intolerance. There is no clearer example of such extremism than the bill signed in Arizona today by Republican Governor Jan Brewer and endorsed by Senator John McCain who had previously been a sponsor of comprehensive immigration reform. Arizona’s new law tramples on Americans’ basic notions of justice and legitimizes prejudice - it is both small-minded and short-sighted.

“I am hopeful that instead of pursuing such misguided efforts, Republican in Congress will join with the President and Congressional Democrats to find a responsible solution to immigration reform that will promote respect for the law, keep law enforcement resources focused on criminal behavior, and benefit all Americans.”

In a related development, Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employee International Union, released the following statement:

"We are deeply disappointed that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer decided to fall back on the same old election year game of demonizing immigrants to score cheap points with her base in an election year. Worse than the usual anti-immigrant rhetoric, this bill gives racial profiling the force of law and institutionalizes racism. Not only that, it will waste Arizona and its local governments' already stretched resources while doing nothing to fix our broken immigration system.

At a time when elected leaders should be demonstrating leadership instead of creating division, Governor Brewer and Senator McCain have chosen to support a flawed and dangerous law rather than put forward real solutions to truly fix our broken immigration system.

This radical anti-immigration law should be a wake-up call to Congress and the White House. Immigration is a national problem that needs a national solution. The lack of action from the Federal government to address the immigration crisis led to this desperate measure by the Arizona legislature. Several representatives who voted for this bill cited this as their reason for their vote - even though they did not think it would do anything to solve Arizona's immigration crisis.

This could happen in other states if Congress doesn't pass real reform. We need immigration policies that will eliminate the underground economy by getting undocumented immigrants into the system, paying fines, back taxes, learning English, and getting on local, state and federal tax rolls. We need reform that will truly end illegal immigration and hold bad-actor employers responsible for depressing wages and violating the right to a safe work-site for all workers. In the coming weeks and months, SEIU together with dozens of other reform minded organizations, will be turning up the pressure on Congress and the President to address this crisis once and for all and pass true comprehensive immigration reform. This must stop in Arizona."